Archdiocese Could Pay $30M Settlement

ROBERT O'NEILL

Published 8:00 pm, Tuesday, March 5, 2002

Associated Press Writer

Negotiations continued Wednesday as the Archdiocese of Boston attempts to work out a deal with alleged victims of John J. Geoghan that could give up to $30 million to 86 people who say they were molested by the now-defrocked priest.

A tentative agreement reached late Monday still had not been finalized, said attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who represents the plaintiffs in the civil lawsuits.

"We're still discussing settlement," he said Wednesday, refusing to reveal details of the discussions.

"Our goal is to achieve a fair and just resolution of these cases as soon as possible in the best interest of the victims," archdiocese spokeswoman Donna Morrissey said Tuesday.

The Boston Globe said the tentative agreement was reached after 11 months of negotiations. It will need the signatures of all 86 plaintiffs and the 17 defendants, including Cardinal Bernard F. Law.

Law was scheduled to appear Thursday for a deposition in the lawsuits, but Garabedian said Law's office called to say he would not appear. Garabedian said he might go to court to compel Law to appear because this was the fourth time the cardinal had been scheduled to give sworn testimony in the case.

Morrissey did not immediately return a call for comment Wednesday.

The 86 plaintiffs would get an average of $232,000 to $348,000 each, with an arbitrator deciding the amount in each case.

The church has already paid an estimated $15 million to 100 alleged Geoghan victims since the mid-1990s.

Geoghan was sentenced to nine to 10 years in prison last month for groping a 10-year-old boy in a swimming pool, and faces two more criminal trials. He has been accused of molesting more than 130 children over 30 years.

The settlement would be one of the biggest ever reached by the Roman Catholic Church in the United States in a child-molestation case involving a priest.

In 1998, nine altar boys in Dallas who said they were molested by former priest Rudolph Kos received a $23.4 million settlement. In New Mexico, the archdiocese paid an estimated $50 million to settle about 45 lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by former priest Jason Sigler.

Besides the lawsuits against Geoghan, there are 48 claims pending against other priests in the Archdiocese of Boston, which has come under fierce criticism for moving Geoghan from parish to parish after learning of the allegations against him.

Meanwhile, Boston College High School confirmed Wednesday that a third Jesuit has been suspended from a teaching position after being accused of molesting a student.

The Rev. Stephen F. Dawber was removed from his post as a history teacher. The school took the action after a graduate told The Globe he was molested by Dawber, now 63, in the early 1970s.

There was no immediate comment from Dawber; no local telephone number was listed for him.